World Book Day!

Today, in the UK and Ireland, schools and organisations are celebrating World Book Day. Although over 100 countries celebrate World Book Day, they won't all be doing so today, many other countries have to wait until 23rd April.

World Book Day orginates from Catalonia, Spain, where, on St Georges Day people would give each other gifts of roses and books. I think that's a wonderful idea. Beautiful words and beautiful flowers.

So, what are you up to today? Is your school celebrating by having a fancy dress day? Are you all receving book tokens? Let us know!

As part of World Book Day there are six special books available to buy for £1. There's a real mixture of titles available such as:

• Winnie to the Rescue by Laura Owen and Korky Paul


• Beast Quest: Sephir the Storm Monster by Adam Blade


• Horrible Histories: Groovy Greeks (WBD edition) by Terry Deary and Martin Brown


• An Episode from MATES DATES: THE SECRET STORY by Cathy Hopkins

Visit the World Book Day website for more information on news and events, as well as the books that are available: World Book Day website

So, what are Jennifer and I doing for World Book Day? Well, we still have to work! After all we have several exciting courses coming up that we have to let people know about, here are a few of them:
'Playing with Poetry' - 21st March at Wareham Library, Dorset
'For the Love of Books' - 4th April at Wareham Library, Dorset
'Tall Tales and Wonderful Worlds' - 7th April at Higher Green Farm, Shaftesbury, Dorset
'Tall Tales and Wonderful Worlds' - 8th April at ArtSway, Sway, Hampshire

However, we have had some time to think about our favourite books.

At the moment I'm listening to Adrian Edmonson reading The BFG by Roald Dahl on Big Toe Books, a children's radio programme dedicated to stories from Jacqueline Wilson to Terry Pratchett. It's on at 7am every morning and has readings from three different stories. Adrian Edmonson is really great at reading The BFG, his Big Friendly Giant voice is perfect; Roald Dahl's brilliant language and made-up words really dance and sing on the airwaves. To see what's coming up, check out thier website: Big Toe Books website

Meanwhile, Jennifer has been bargain hunting at 'The Works' bookshop in Poole. She bought an interesting new book by David Almond called The Birdman. I haven't had chance to read it yet, but I'm sure she'll let us know how it turns out. I have seen the copy though, and there's something very inviting about the cover - a thick-crisp-paper dust jacket with bright humourous drawings. Some of the writing is slightly embossed (raised from the page) which makes it nice to run your fingers over.

Well, that's it for now.

Don't forget to let us know what you've been doing for World Book Day.

Bye for now,

Rosie (and Jennifer)

Hello all,

We were at Kilve this weekend to create some wonderful creatures. As we drove over the hills towards the village, the weather began playing tricks with us; draping swirly mists across the countryside one minute and bathing us in golden sunlight the next. The mist gathered around us as we arrived at Kilve Court, creeping in from the woods and down from the moors, it was perfect for shrouding all kinds of menacing beasts as they prowled around, no doubt searching for unsuspecting Kilve students to munch on!

We spent Friday evening discussing the endless possibilities of fantasy creatures and playing games to come up with some original characters. But the real fun started on Saturday morning, when we walked into the Quantock hills and discovered evidence of countless fascinating creatures. There were wood knocks, river people, water gnomes, flying giants, a hoax and even a bog monster. Here's a student's quick sketch of the bog monster:

We even stumbled upon time portals, an abandoned pixie village, a fallen tree which showed us a map of a fantastical world, and an enourmous fossilised bird which we hoped wouldn't come to life and gobble us up:

Luckily we all avoided being trapped, eaten, or lost in time, and made it safely back to Kilve. In the afternoon we used clay to sculpt some models of the creatures we'd seen or new ones we'd just thought of, and made field study guides to record details of their habitats, food, life-cycles or information about how they originated. It's really useful to have supporting information like this about characters for your stories as it helps give them depth and believability - even if you don't put it all in the story, just the fact that you know it will shine through your writing and make it seem more substantial to the reader.

The students used their facts and models to do just that, spending all of Saturday evening writing wonderful and exciting stories about their creatures. Everyone worked really hard to improve their work so that it intrigued us, making us want to read more and more!

Sunday morning was spent finishing off in a big rush, sticking and copying and colouring in. But it was worth all the flurry as the presentation went brilliantly with laughter, suspense and plenty of applause!

Rosie and myself had a lovely drive home. Colour seemed to be rushing back into the world after the bleak winter - early daffodils splashed yellow on grassy banks, bright red dogwood twigs stretched up towards the sky and the sunset was casting a pinkish buttery glow over ploughed fields. All nice touches to add to stories or poems!

I have just finished reading Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper. It was an interesting book, with a sea shanty that got stuck in my head, appealing characters like Ma Kettle with a dress made from skull and crossbone flags, and descriptions that make you feel as though you are right in the story, living and breathing it.

However, the book also had some down points: it is set 500 years in the future but doesn't actually seem like it as the pirates use swords instead of guns and there's no explanation of why. The ending was a bit unsatisfactory as it felt rushed but also left open for the sequel. Sometimes I didn't want to read the chapters about the character of Connor as I was too interested in what was happening to the other character of Grace.

Having said all that, I couldn't put the book down, and thought about it when I wasn't reading it. I also want to read the next one in the series. So if the idea of vampires crossed with pirates intrigues you - get this book out from the library and let us know what you think!

Bye for now

Jennifer (and Rosie).

We had a Funtastic time at Leeson House this weekend searching for fairies and other magical creatures.

Friday evening started with a discussion about the realm of faery and moved on to what fairies might be like today and whether they have evolved to adapt to our changing environments. This was a perfect kick start for designing our own wands and wings. We thought about camouflage needs and utility features to assist fairies with their tasks!


Saturday morning saw us squelching a muddy path to the coast. The wind picked up along the way but the sun still shone and our spirits stayed high enough to create some original onomatopoeic words like ‘hoowawh’ to describe the wind (by Kitty) or ‘ziziziz’ for pebbles crunching together (by Kai). We also had evocative descriptions using our five senses like ‘lushy mud’ (by Sophie) and ‘the itchy, prickly, spiny mud felt horrible down my legs’ (by Emily). Words and descriptions like these can really make a piece of writing feel alive.

In the afternoon we were back at Leeson House starting stories and poems, drawing illustrations, and making our wings. We spent a while thinking up some original descriptive similes. Similies can be really fun to use in writing because you can be so inventive. Here are three that are really unique:

‘Sinking in the mud like weetabix in milk.’(Rosina).
‘Mushrooms the colour of the sunset.’ (Emily).
‘A bush as silver as lead.’(Kai).

Everybody worked really hard with lots of different projects going on and the time flew until evening. After dinner we went out in the dark to search the grounds for any nocturnal fairies or fantastical creatures that might have been lurking about. However, the wind began to really howl and buffet us about and it soon blew us back to the cosy classroom!

The weekend finished with a bustle of activity as everyone got ready for the presentation. Parents enjoyed seeing their young fairies reading their work and showing off their wings!

If you’re interested in this course we have it coming up again soon, this time at Kilve Court in Somerset from March 27th – 29th. Call Kilve Court for details (01278 741270). If you’d like to see what else we’re up to and the other courses we have coming up, please take a look at our website and the ‘upcoming courses’ page!

In the meantime, why don’t you head out for a blustery walk yourself? Have a go at thinking up some wonderful descriptions and similes and send them to us. If we’re really impressed we’ll put them in our newsletter (send us your email address if you’d like to be added to the mailing list: creativecreatures@hotmail.co.uk).

Sorry it’s been such a long time since we told you what we were up to! We’ve had two great weekend workshops since our last blog, one at Kilve Court and one at Leeson House.

At Kilve we explored some Tall Tales and looked out for Beautiful Beasts. During a grey-skies walk to the beach we mapped out creature sightings and suspicious settings. The leafless bushes were frazzly, like a giant birdbeast’s nest, and The Lake of Dragon Tears at the end of a quiet lane seemed very melancholy. Some fabulous stories were created from ideas discovered along the way, including one by Heather. Here’s an extract from her work:

‘Slowly Fireball creaked the door open, Fireball trembled with fear, his legs were shaking and he was biting his lip.
“Who goes there?” boomed a familiar voice.
“Are you the person that tricked me?” Fireball asked politely.
“Ah, that’s where you are wrong,” said the voice.
Out of the darkest corner of the room, a figure who looked like Ben Franklin came out. Suddenly he shape shifted into Madonna, then Fireball himself, and finally John Terry.’

This story extract shows the tension and excitement which can make a story really fun to read to yourself, but especially fun to storytell, something we all had a chance to try out over the weekend. It’s great to tell stories to your family and friends as well as just writing them, but don’t forget to do some warm up voice exercises first!

At Leeson House it was the first run for a new course - Smuggling Stories. We had four students ready for the challenges of smuggling a poem beneath our very noses, casting their minds into the past for some atmospheric stories, and making a book to smuggle them home in. Phew!

Saturday was a piercingly sunny day and we trudged through the mud to Dancing Ledge to see things from the perspective of an 18th century smuggler, learning bits of helpful information on the way. At Dancing Ledge the pockmarked slope slid into the sea, with a shock of white spray jumping up at the edge, and we imagined how difficult it would have been to land there years ago with a boat loaded with contraband.

On Sunday we woke up to a layer of frost making the world look magical. But it didn’t distract us long from writing stories filled with drama and suspense and making books to record smuggling facts. Students went home smuggling their stories in a hidden compartment, only to be revealed to a trusted few!

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. Our New Year has started with a flurry of activity as we are developing the website, creating a newsletter for you, and taking bookings for the months that lie ahead.

The first Creative Creatures course for 2009 is this coming weekend, where we’ll be finding some Funtastic Fairies at Leeson House (Jan 16th-18th). Next we delve into Grisly Grimm and Freaky Fairytales at Kilve Court (Jan 30th-Feb1st) and then we are back at Kilve the very next weekend (Feb 6th-8th) when we will be Creating Creatures. See the upcoming courses page for contact details and for courses later in the year.

That’s all for now, hope to see you on one of our courses soon!
Jennifer.

We’ve just come back from a weekend at Kilve with some Funtastic Fairies!

Despite the grey skies we had a lovely walk in the Quantock hills on the Saturday morning and autumn was out in full display. When we reached the top we could see hills curving away into the distance; they looked like a cluster of turtle shells with their rusty tint dappling of turning tree leaves. Along the way we kept an eye out for fairy evidence, and students thought fairies might use aerobirds, moto-ants and leaf boats!

There were some fantastic wings and wands made, with Comet fairies, Fashion fairies , Weather fairies and Sea-shore fairies all making an appearance. Everybody wrote very exciting stories too. Unfortunately our night-time fairy hunt was a bit disrupted with bright lights and we think the fairies might have taken refuge by dancing the night away in the trunk of a tree - it seemed to be shaking ever so slightly, as though lots of tiny slippered feet were tapping and whirling on polished wooden floors.

Thank you to all who joined us and we hope to see you again! If anyone else thinks they’d love to spend a weekend like this, we have two Funtastic Fairy courses in the spring – see the ‘Upcoming courses’ page on our website for more information.

Cornelia Funke

Here's the start of our blog, a way to keep in contact with you all and let you know what we're up to!

Both me and Jennifer are currently loving Cornelia Funke's Inheart Trilogy - last week I went to Bath to see her talk at the Children's Literature Festival.

I caught the train to Bath on Saturday morning. It was a cold morning and the city was hidden in mist. The queue to see Cornelia Funke was out the door when I arrived and snaking up the stairs. It moved quickly though, and it wasn't long before I was in my seat in front of the stage. I had a few moments before the talk started, so I snuck out to buy a copy of Inkdeath, the last book of the trilogy. I love the covers for all the books, especially the hard back editions. This one has a skull made of pictures on the front. It's a beauitful book with red fly papers and fine white pages.

It was a very laid back interview, Cornelia came across as very friendly and her answers were interesting and honest. She spoke about the upcoming film (due out in December), and how she had gone on set in Italy. She felt like one of her characters, Fenoglio, when he sees his creations for the first time. Jim Broadbent, who plays Fenoglio, apparently found him an easy character to play - he just copied all Cornelia's expressions whenever she met one of her characters, seemingly brought to life.

Cornelia has an obvious love of stories and words, but it was her complete belief in her characters that really interested me. Characters are so important, they make your story; if you don't care about them, you don't care about the story they're telling. She talked about how stories often seem to write themselves, and that her characters argue with her about what she wants to happen. The characters win, because after all, it is their story.

We all got chance to ask questions at the end and Cornelia answered them all with a smile. She spoke about 'feeling' stories when you arrive somewhere and gave an example of how she 'felt' a story when she first walked into Salisbury Cathedral, and the first time she visited Venice. I wanted to ask if she had felt any stories in Bath that morning, as it had looked so mysterious, but sadly there were too many other questions so mine never got asked. I'd like to think that she did catch some stories in the mist that day, I would love to think of Bath being written into her books.

I left feeling very pleased to have had the opportunity to hear her talk about her work, it both uplifted and inspired me. That's the great thing about listening to other writers, they can support and encourage you just by sharing their ideas.

I have finished Inkdeath, and as I felt when I read the last Harry Potter book, I was sad it had ended, but very happy to have shared the adventure all the way. Jennifer has now greedily snatched the book from my clutches and I can't wait to hear whether she enjoyed it!

Have you been reading her books? Let us know what you think of them!

Happy writing!
Rosie.